Opener report w/ pics

[Spinach]

4 of us fished the St Croix opener today, BFG, Leech Angler, Wild Willie and myself, we got a late start and had the boat in the water around 10am, we headed North out of Hudson towards the old railroad bridge, first lines in the water at 10:15 am.

It started out very slow, I finally picked up a nice 18 1/2 er at around 11:30am, caught on a plain pink hook and a Crawler. Leech Angler picked up a 14 incher shortly after, but that one had to be released due to the 15" or bigger slot. I picked up another 14' eye an hour later and released it.

Wild Willie had the hot pole for sheephead, he must have caught a half dozen or more, but no Walleyes.

The exciting part of the day came around 3pm, BFG tied into a monster Sturgeon, after a half hour or so fight with this huge fish, we finally caught a glimpse and then it made another long run, this fish was way to huge for our landing net, so we decided to try and grab the tail on the next opportunity, about 5 minutes later, we had anther chance, Leech Angler grabbed on and it slipped out and made another run (see picture) by this time BFG was worn out and exhausted, we looked around and had a half dozen boats watching and cheering him on, he finally got it up to the top again and Leech made one final attempt at grabbing it by the gills, the fish turned hard and bent the snaphook, we did get a very good look at this monster before it swam away and all agreed it was a minimum of 55" if not closer to 60". BFG was using the new Berkely Crystal fireline 12 pound test.

All Walleyes were caught on Crawlers and plain hooks, Fatheads only produced Sheephead and a few missed bites.

Here are the pictures of the day on the St Croix river. ::cheers::


Monster sturgeon estimated 55- 60 inches

Big Fish Guy and Wild Willie

Big Fish Guy and Wild Willie

Big Fish Guy and Wild Willie

Spinach and a nice 18 1/2 inch Walleye

These Ducks followed us around for a while, they wanted to be famous and have their pictures posted on the most popular Outdoors website on the internet.

[JohnWester]

it was 8 lbs test fireline crystal... and I believe in it! ::rockon::

[ScottPugh]

Great report guys.  I sure have to hook into one of those stergeon one of these days. 

[holdemtwice]

 LOOKS like a great outing. thanx for the post !!  cant wait for ours (opener)  . congrats on the nice eye . 
  scott